‘CULT OF THE HALF NUDE’

Greek writer finds sex, crime
twin features of American culture

THEODORE DOGANIS, the writer of this article, is a Greek journalist who recently

visited the United States to report the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
gives his impression of the country.

WHEN THE PLANE touches
down at La Guardia airport,
New York, you soon face the
immigration officials.

I was singled out—the solitary
Communist—and the questions
started.

“How long have you been a
Communist?”

“Are your father, mother, wife
and sisters also Communists?”

“Isn't it a horrible crime to be
a Communist?”

“Have you come here to under-
mine law and order?”

As the official shouted his
questions, it seemed to me the
very scenes I had experienced
in Greek Fascist police stations
were being repeated.

And throughout my stay in
New York I was reminded that
I was staying in a country where
the fear of being spied on by
the police is almost as wide-
spread as in Greece today.

' Anti-Communist hysteria has
already reached Goebbelsian
pitch. It threatens not only Com-
munists but every citizen who
is not ready to admit that Leon
Feuchtwanger, Upton Sinclair or

Charlie Chaplin are wicked en-
emies of the United States.

The American press—with very
few exceptions—plays a promi-
nent part in boosting the anti-
Communist campaign. It com-
bines this with a policy of excit-
ing, base, bestial and criminal
instinets. :

Funnies, crimes, crimes, fun-
nies, sex stories and again crime
. and anti-Soviet stunts. ,

Waiting one evening to catch
the underground train. I jotted
down the following titles of the

periodicals displayed at the sta-

P<. : ;
hands of American big business,
has become a _ culture-killing

“However, it is not only in the

press and television that sex and ~

crime are the dominant topics.

_ Wherever one turns in New
_ York the eyes are hit by huge
advertisements and, whatever
they are selling, the female body
—as a rule at least half nude—
is brought into the picture. ok

Even undertakers’ advertise-
ments are suitably adorned with
the female bosom.

s, - Collier's magazine carried a re
port On November 19, 1949, head-
ed “Terror in Our Cities.” It

gave facts about the alarming —

_

. *
ee

“He says he’s given sex an
anti-Communist twist, Chief. His
new series is called ‘A Red in
My Bed.”

increase in sexual and other

crimes
troit.

Police told Collier’s reporter,
Howard Whitman:

“Every sixth call on the police
radio in Detroit is a sex call.
. Crimes against children un-
der 10 years old have increased
50 percent in the last four years.
. There were 560 reported
ee cases only last year. .
In the last five years Detroit
experienced a 33 percent increase
in murder, 27 percent in rape,
63 percent in assaults, 64 per-
cent in robbery. The year 1949,
although not yet complete, shows
a further general increase of
15 percent with rape leading the
field.”

Detroit is not an exception. In

New York I saw armored cars —
transporting cash to the banks. /

I was told it was the only safe
way against gangster attacks.

The axiom of capitalist econ-
omy that bad money chases away
good money is fully applicable,
too, to the cinema and theater
world in New York. Bad shows
are killing the good ones. More-
over, there is a mass killing of
theaters going on.

Eli Kazan; the well-known pro-

ducer, writing in the New York
“Times in Notember last, disclos-

ed that, while’-in the twenties,

there were 70 theaters, now there

are fewer than 30 left.

The others were transformed
into broadcasting studios, cine-
mas, or were simply pulled down
and the space used as car parks
—car parks are considered a
much sounder business proposi-
tion. A

Rs ae *

THEN THERE is the color

bar. :

In New York I met a young
couple who lived in Harlem. The
girl was white, her husband
Negro. They were both from
Maryland. They had had to flee
in order to marry.

In Maryland, they explained
to me, they were threatened by
the law prohibiting marriage be-
tween whites and colored, This
law imposes prison sentences

from 18 months to 10 years for

contraventions.

The wife was in danger of

imprisonment if she should thes

birth to a child.

in one city alone—De-

Here he

“Any white woman in Mary-
land,” she said, “who has a child
by a Negro can be sentenced to

five years’ imprisonment.”

This Maryland legislation is no
exception. Other states have
even more barbaric provisions.
In Texas, for instance, “no white
child can be adopted by a Negro,
nor can a Negro child be adopted
by a white person.”

And who is white?

In Virginia, the term

‘applies only to the person “who

have no trace whatsoever of any
blood other than Caucasian.”

It has also been ruled by U.S.
courts that, even if you can
prove that you are of Sicilian,
or Greek or other Mediterran-
ean stock, this does not neces-
sarily prove that you are white.

In Louisiana, anyone who has
one-sixteenth or more Negro
blood
and is forbidden to marry or
even to cohabit with a white
person. Heil Hitler!

However, there are some posi-
tive and hopeful aspects’ in this
picture.

I do not mean the abundance
of food, nylons, Coca-Colas and
glittering cars.

This “abundance’ is deceptive
because it conceals the fact that

U.S. economy is in the throes of

a crisis, the full blast of which
only the huge armaments and
the Marshall exports can Jeep ga
arily postpone.

The really hopeful signs are
the unbroken spirit of the Amer-
ican Communists, despite threats
and persecution: the wonderful
emergence of a mounting pro-
gressive movement among the
Negro people of the U.S.: the
fact that Paul Robeson is now
one of the recognized leaders. of
the progressive Sa 8 of Amer-
ica, ;

“white”

is considered as colored, ,

Vera Maretskaya, one of the Soviet Union’s leading dra-

-

matic actresses, in a scene from Village Teacher.

WHAT’S ON THE SCREEN

Children’s performance

distinguishes

new Film

WHEN MARK DONSKOY, one of the Soviet Union’s best-
known directors, undertook his assignment on Village Teacher, the
new Soviet film opening at the State Theater here this Sunday mid-
night, he was faced with a task that would have dismayed many 4
director, that of selecting and directing two dozen children in @

Before selecting his young cast,
Donskoy tested over 2,000 children
and only made his final choice
after each younster had been
given full opportunity to show
what he or she could do,

“If you want children to co-
operate with you
film, you have to be able to teach.
You must be exceptionally patient,
and even that is not enough. You
must also love children and be
able to win their admiration and
trust.” That is Donskoy’s ap-
proach. “And;” he adds, “we
found we could only succeed in
getting a good performance from
a child when we explained the
task and enlisted his full inter-
est.”

in making a

The unquestionable success of
Village Teacher proves Donskoy’s
methods. His children in The
Rainbow won approval from cri-
tics throughout , the world, and

story about a teacher spread over 40 years.

his Childhood of Maxim Gorky
is considered one of the classics
of the Soviet screen. Now the
performances of the children in
Village Teacher are winning
praise wherever the picture iS
shown.

This latest film is perhaps Don-
skoy’s greatest accomplishment:
for some of the children were
required to portray three genera-
tions - father, child and eran
child.

The film is equally a triumph +
for Vera Maretskaya, recognized
as one of the Soviet Union’s
leading dramatic actresses. Het
talents are given full scope i
this story of a woman who over —
comes her own personal tragedy
through her love for her pupilé&
The role is an exacting one, fOr
she is required to portray a WO
man from the age of sixteen tO
sixty, from the pre-revolutionary
days to the present,

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_ PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 14, 1950 — PAGE